Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 2

[308] the time and the place of this convention were favorable (not to say, had reference) to such a change in the representation as should give an advantage to the political faction. The language of the call itself was significant The invitation was extended only to ‘such freemen of¹ the United States as adopt the principles embodied in the Constitution of the American Anti-Slavery Society,’ and the object of meeting declared to be ‘the thorough discussion of those great principles which lie at the foundation of the abolition enterprise, throughout the civilized world; and of the measures which are suited to its accomplishment in the United States, and especially those which relate to the proper exercise of the right of suffrage by citizens of the free States. All questions and matters foreign to this object will be cautiously avoided in the deliberations of the occasion.’

On the assembling of some five hundred delegates—² the Massachusetts disorganizers being present in force —Mr. Garrison took the committee of arrangements³ (embracing Goodell, Stanton and Leavitt) to task for their unprecedented and proscriptive phraseology, for which there was no warrant in their instructions. He was ruled out of order by the presiding officer, Alvan Stewart. He then moved that ‘freemen’ meant ‘all persons,’ but was beaten by a large majority; whereupon he formulated a protest which was ordered read and⁴ printed, and was subsequently signed by upwards of sixty delegates. He objected to the committee's assurance that ‘extraneous matters’ would be excluded, for they were not competent or authorized to determine the proceedings of the convention, or justified in assuming that such matters were generally lugged in at antislavery meetings. The president, on his part, had no right to assume that the political, more than the religious, aspect of the cause was germane to the convention. The convention itself, by voting to exclude women, completed the demonstration that its organization, spirit